Tír Na HiFi

Johannes Brahms
Ein Deutsches Requiem
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
James Levine - conducting.

Seán wrote:

Johannes Brahms
Ein Deutsches Requiem
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
James Levine - conducting.

Sean,

I would be very interested in your thoughts on that box set as I seem to be collecting the sony classical box sets and this one caught my eyes.

Matt.

Today:

Tapiola by Sibelius conducted by Berglund from



Piano Concerto no. 1 by Prokofiev conducted by Leinsdorf from



Estampes by Claude Debussy played by Alain Planes from

ravel30 wrote:

Seán wrote:

Sean,

I would be very interested in your thoughts on that box set as I seem to be collecting the sony classical box sets and this one caught my eyes.

Matt.

Hi Matt, I like it and would certainly recommend it, it has helped to open my ears to the beauty of Brahms orchestral music. But if I was asked to recommend just one Brahms orchestral cycle I'd opt for Harnoncourt with the BPO. Levine's Mahler box set on Sony is one you should consider getting too.

Last saturday a star was born in New York when an indisposed Violeta Urmana canceled the matinee performance of Aida that was broadcast worldwide and an unknown American black soprano called Latonia Moore substituted. She was magnificent, with a sumptuous voice ideal for Aida like we haven´t heard in the past 2 decades. The audience went wild of course and a new opera star was born on the spot. I enjoyed the performance so much that I wanted to hear Aida again, so I decided to play this famous 1979 live Munich recording, an equally exciting Aida, superbly sung by Karajan´s favourite (and mine too) soprano: Anna Tomowa-Sintow. Hers was a large, creamy, versatile spinto voice, that was equally efficient in Mozart, Verdi, Strauss and Wagner. She is also the most adorable of persons, a diva without diva affectations. Next to her is Placido Domingo, no less, in his absolute prime. His manly, heroic, larger-than-life Radames has not been equalled since, not at least by Marcello Giordani who sang at the MET last saturday. And last but not least, we get Riccardo Muti conducting with aristocratic flair and white-hot passion. The magnificent chorus and orchestra from the Bavarian Opera House play like gods for him. It´s very difficult to do justice to Verdi in an era of indifferent, unimportant singers, but every now and then we get lucky and a truly great night at the opera reminds us what this is really all about.

Seán wrote:

ravel30 wrote:

Seán wrote:

Sean,

I would be very interested in your thoughts on that box set as I seem to be collecting the sony classical box sets and this one caught my eyes.

Matt.

Hi Matt, I like it and would certainly recommend it, it has helped to open my ears to the beauty of Brahms orchestral music. But if I was asked to recommend just one Brahms orchestral cycle I'd opt for Harnoncourt with the BPO. Levine's Mahler box set on Sony is one you should consider getting too.

Hi Sean,

Thank you for your comments. I own the Harnoncourt cycle thanks to your recommendation a few months ago. Very interesting that you mention Levine's Mahler box as it is at the top of my wish list. The reviews that I have read about this set are great and I could use a second version of some of Mahler's symphonies.

Matt.

Brahms - Symphony No.4 (Christoph von Dohnanyi, The Cleveland Orchestra, Warner Classics)

Bartok - Violin Concerto No.2 (James Ehnes/Gianandrea Noseda, BBC Philharmonic, Chandos)

Sibelius - Symphony No.5 (Colin Davis, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philips)

Grieg - Symphonic Dances & Holberg Suite (Paavo Jarvi, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Virgin Classics)